Ruddy Shelducks

[cats4jan]

I was very excited to see a group of 5 Ruddy Shelducks in the man-made lake behind my house.  It was difficult grabbing a photo as any noise sent them swimming too far for my telephoto lens to grab or they flew off to another part of the neighborhood.

After spending hours investigating these guys, (or girls, as the case may be) - I am certain they are Ruddy Shelducks.  The one with the ring around the neck is the male.

Although other Shelducks are more prevalent in the United States, these members of the duck/goose family are hardly ever seen here.  I saw them for the last two days, but not today.  I hope they have not moved on - they are quite a beautiful sight to see and I'm hoping to grab a better photo of what I assume is a family of 5.

[pontiac1940]

Janice
Very cool. 
Nice photo of the ducks and interesting story. 
Clive

[jackscrap]

Great page Janice, and a very interesting story too, hope you are handy with the camera when they next decide to visit.

[Lillias]

Great shot Janice. Lovely looking birds. I hope you get a chance to take some more shots of them. Love how you picked out the colour for the frame and the title - works well.

[hmca]

Beautiful ducks, Janice. It is interesting to me to
see how the placement of the different elements work with each other to create the overall
design. I particularly like the way the angled cream shape adds depth to your page.

[cats4jan]

Feb 25, 2020 13:39:24 GMT hmca said:

Beautiful ducks, Janice. It is interesting to me to
see how the placement of the different elements work with each other to create the overall
design. I particularly like the way the angled cream shape adds depth to your page.

Thank you.  This is more basic of a page than I like to make, but after fooling for a longer than normal time, I just wanted to post it to show everyone my visitors.  They are even more beautiful in person.

Most of my favorite layouts are created using templates.  I need that extra boost of someone else's creativity to elevate a normal page to something a little more special.  This one began as a blank slate where I put the photo and title and text on the page and, then, I tried to find something to make it special, but got stuck and left it plain. 

The cream shape is a brush - I just brushed down on that side of the page with the brush at it's largest size and it went solid like that.  The texture on the main background is a brush on top of a texture provided by Kim at Just Art.  Usually I use someone's background papers for my layouts, but this time I fell back on using brushes and textures.

What I like so much about PSE is the layers.  I keep everything on individual layers - even my brushwork - turning brush and like layers off and on using the eyeball on the left side of the layer in the layers panel.  I seldom merge down because I want the ability to delete or move a layer if the whim strikes.  And, to be honest, nothing ever ends up in the original place where I first put it on the page.  Everything gets moved as I bring other layers on.  For me, the true fun of making scrapbook pages is seeing how I can change it up to make it better. (Or sometimes worse - that is why I save my project at regular intervals - and if I'm really struggling, I save a second copy and call it v.2 so I can always go back)  

[cats4jan]

Sightings Update - sad to say, there have been no sightings of my duck family for a couple of days. I hope they will pop back over

[hmca]

Thanks for the information on the brush etc. Janice. You and Lillias have certainly done a good job at introducing me to the world of scrapping. One day I might get more serious about it but in the meantime I am learning lots of little tips
that are helpful as I create photo books each year documenting our granddaughter's progress in gymnastics.

[cats4jan]

Feb 25, 2020 23:21:34 GMT hmca said:

Thanks for the information on the brush etc. Janice. You and Lillias have certainly done a good job at introducing me to the world of scrapping. One day I might get more serious about it but in the meantime I am learning lots of little tips
that are helpful as I create photo books each year documenting our granddaughter's progress in gymnastics.

I do so enjoy seeing the photos of your granddaughter. I bet she loves her books.  What a special gift. 

[whippet]

Feb 25, 2020 15:36:16 GMT cats4jan said:

This is more basic of a page than I like to make,

Well, I for one, think it is excellent, Janice. It is not too 'busy'. And I think the text, and border having the same colour as the birds was a really good idea.

Sorry you have not seen them again. They are beautiful.

[cats4jan]

Feb 26, 2020 10:33:18 GMT whippet said:

Feb 25, 2020 15:36:16 GMT cats4jan said:

This is more basic of a page than I like to make,

Well, I for one, think it is excellent, Janice. It is not too 'busy'. And I think the text, and border having the same colour as the birds was a really good idea.

I believe this hobby is divided between those who want to showcase their photos in a straight-forward way --- photos (usually the same size) - equidistant - a title/date and maybe some journaling (text to describe the event) ---I call this 'collage making'...

...and those who want to fru-fru it up a bit - adding 'stuff' for the sake of decorating the page - which I think of as 'classic digital scrapbooking'

There's a third phase of digital scrapbooking I call 'artsy' - those people are not trying to memorialize an event in their life - they are creating art for the sake of art - using photos that have no personal connection to them. Although I envy their skill in creating these works of art, I feel 'empty' about a page when I create one that has no personal connection to me.  And, besides, to be honest, I am not good at creating 'art' LOL.

I fall in the 'somewhat fru-fru' sector in my digital scrapbooking. I like to keep my pages clean, but I like them to have something 'extra.'  I really enjoy when I find the perfect addition for my page.  If they do not have enough 'extra' - I'm dissatisfied with the result.

But again - and I can't stress this enough...  There is no right or wrong about this hobby.  When you create a page, if you are happy with it - it's perfect.  There is just no two ways about that.

[cats4jan]

I especially enjoy making fun pages and I am really happy when I am able to find complementing things to finish an idea.

(There was a fist fight at our motel and the cops were called. Not a reassuring sight when you get to your motel to check in.)

The photos are a little blurry because they are captures from the video I took in the parking lot.
Oops - the whole thing is blurry because it's a screenshot.

[whippet]

Thank you for your comment, Janice.
It is so true what you say. As long as the creator is happy with their work, then that is all that matters.

My introduction to PSE was on a course some years ago.
We did not learn most of what is on here.
But, we did do collages.
I have managed to find one of the early ones I did.

And people are probably tired of seeing me submit dogs.

[Lillias]

I'm not tired of your dogs whippet. Great page. Love the design and layout and the shadows really elevate those images in front of the faded background.

[cats4jan]

I love the doggies. Never get tired of them. Your page shows a lot of complex techniques- nice job.